just don’t give a…stitch?

This might seem a bit disjointed today, but it really does all work together.

Also? If you have any issues with the use of all the words of the English language, then you might find the work below is not your cup of tea. Alternatively, you might be at work and so you need to know now that this might be NSFW. Come back later!

Ready?

Looking back at cross-stitch innocence…

Long, long ago when I was 10, my godmother taught me how to cross stitch. She has these rules about how to separate the strands of floss, about never using a hoop, and about making all the stitches in the same way with the top half-stitch of the crosses all leaning the same way. I’d send her cross-stitched gifts and get back some helpful criticism within her thank you notes. Heh. Well, as a kid, it didn’t seem so kind, but now I see what she was trying to do for me. These are good habits well-reinforced to make the work look more professional. Anyway, sometime I’ll tell you about her and her needlework.

After a long break from stitching during college, I returned to some serious alphabet sampler work in 2003 and this continued for a few years. I loved using charts of reproductions (mainly late 1800s) with aged linen and handdyed silk floss. This also is when I discovered the joy of the simplicity of redwork.

Back then, during those early years of my current job, I kind of needed the tedium of counted cross stitch as a haven in my control. And then after a while it just became tedious and, well, I learned how to make quilts instead. And then knitting happened…

Gosh, I haven’t done much cross stitch since 2005.

What can I say? I’m a fickle crafter. Although, foreshadowing current pursuits, this little scrap gem happened:

New topic!

Have you heard of the Honey Badger?

When I decided to cancel my cable about a decade ago, I pulled in only PBS on my antenna. Watching nature shows became my regular entertainment and I came to really dislike them for all the violence. It’s natural violence, but too much reality too often was not good. When I came across this recent viral video of a honey badger (video link: not for the faint of heart and likely NSFW), I started musing on the lessons we can learn from the honey badger. Now there are too many ideas in my head right now to focus, so I just chose to reproduce this t-shirt design that I found via JulieFrick on Pinterest.

Honey badger just don’t care. And maybe we all should embrace some part of our inner honey badgers?

Back to the cross stitchery!

All the cross stitch lately going on online started to worm its way back into my brain. In particular Kathy mentioned her return to a pretty old work-in-progress and she even referred to one of my most favorite chart shops: The Scarlet Letter. (It’s comforting to see that the site is totally the same as it was eight years ago.) And so I had alphabets on the brain.

Armed with a French book of cross stitch fonts gotten from a Japanese book shop, some 14ct natural linen aida cloth and some variegated DMC floss, I embraced my inner honey badger and improvised a (NSFW) cross stitch sampler a couple of weeks ago.
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I said NSFW! Are you sure you want to scroll down?
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And then I did it again.

* No more charts, sorry.*

Want to make your own Don’t Give a… sampler?

Well, I made a stitch chart (PDF). On 14ct aida, this came out to be 4.5″x7″, so you’ll need about a fat quarter of cloth if you plan to frame it. Using two strands of floss for all stitches, I only needed 1.5 hanks of the variegated DMC.

Leave a comment here or email me (cauchycomplete at gmail dot com) if you’d like a chart.

The etiquette stuff: Of course, the design is my own and I am sharing it just for personal use. Selling the chart or the resulting stitchery is not only unlawful–it’s just not cool. If you seem sketchy, I reserve the right not to send you a chart…and I will sic my pet honey badger on you.

** Nope. No more charts.**

Art, inspiration, me, reflection, stitchery

July 26, 2011

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